A World Without Sleep

what if you stopped sleeping

If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter, you know you’re not yourself the next day. And perhaps you’ve even lamented the need for 8 hours of shut-eye. Imagine that you didn’t have to sleep. No more struggling to wake up in the morning to go to work.

It is no secret that sleeping is a big part of our lives, it’s essential. So essential that we could die if we stopped sleeping for a long amount of time. As ASAP Science explains, we need to sleep.

But, what if there were a cure for sleep? What if there were a drug you could take so you never felt tired? What would you do if you didn’t have to sleep?

Now consider that in the future we might compete with artificial intelligent robots that might replace us. In order to survive will we see humans adopt extreme tactics such as not sleeping?

On this week’s episode of The Big Bang Podcast we imagine a world without sleep.

Some questions we discussed:

  • Can we take sleep out of the equation?
  • What can human beings achieve if we didn’t have to sleep?
  • Do you think your life would be improved or detrimentally affected?
  • How might our life change if we didn’t sleep?
  • What would you decide to do with all of the extra time?
  • If we can take a drug that does the same thing for our brains and bodies as sleeping, is there any reason we shouldn’t?
  • What if the sleep replacement wasn’t a drug, but rather an external device?

What if we didn’t have to sleep? What would you do if you didn’t have to sleep?

Let us know on Twitter @jorgebarba and @adrianpedrin.

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The Big Bang is a weekly podcast. Tune in every Tuesday for more discussions on what’s possible.

Intro audio is by Arturo Arriaga, outro audio is Candyland by Guy J.